Nuclear Weapons

Taking U.S. and Russian missiles off high alert could keep a possible cyberattack from starting a nuclear war, a former commander of U.S. nuclear forces says, but neither country appears willing to increase the lead-time to prepare the weapons for launch.

Retired Gen. James Cartwright said in an interview that "de-alerting" nuclear arsenals could foil hackers by reducing the chance of firing a weapon in response to a false warning of attack.

Essentially adding a longer fuse can be done without eroding the weapons' deterrent value, said Cartwright, who headed Strategic Command from 2004 to 2007 and was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before retiring in...

Related "Nuclear Weapons" Articles

Taking U.S. and Russian missiles off high alert could keep a possible cyberattack from starting a nuclear war, a former commander of U.S. nuclear forces says, but neither country appears willing to increase the lead-time to prepare the weapons for launch....

One of the key arguments used by the United States and the Western powers to justify the recent Iran nuclear deal is that the alternative to this deal is war.
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For several years,...

President Barack Obama is lobbying hard for the preliminary nuclear deal the U.S. and five other world powers reached with Iran. He touts it as "our best bet by far to make sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon." But he doesn't yet have a deal in hand...

"Reagan has accelerated the moral disarmament of the West by elevating wishful thinking to the status of political philosophy."
— George F. Will, 1987, on the United States' nuclear weapons negotiations with the Soviet Union.
Amid all the criticism of...

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Friday pledged that his nation will abide by its commitments in the nuclear agreement reached the previous day in Switzerland.
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Capping exhausting and contentious talks, Iran and world powers sealed a breakthrough agreement Thursday outlining limits on Iran's nuclear program to keep it from being able to produce atomic weapons. The Islamic Republic was promised an end to years...

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U.S. Secretary of State John...

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Iran's Revolution Guard says a U.S. drone strike has killed two of its advisers in Iraq, though the U.S. said Monday it has only struck militants in its campaign against the Islamic State group.
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Negotiations over Iran's nuclear program grew frantic on Saturday amid signs of discord, with the French and German foreign ministers joining U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in talks with Tehran's top diplomat ahead of an end-of-March deadline for a...

The United States is considering letting Tehran run hundreds of centrifuges at a once-secret, fortified underground bunker in exchange for limits on centrifuge work and research and development at other sites, officials have told The Associated Press.
...

The United States and Iran are drafting elements of a nuclear deal that commits Tehran to a 40 percent cut in the number of machines it could use to make an atomic bomb, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. In return, the Iranians would get...

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In an unusually upbeat assessment, Iran's top nuclear official said Tuesday his government's main disagreements with the U.S. and its negotiating partners have been resolved and expressed optimism about meeting a late March deadline for a framework deal....

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After careful consideration I have decided not to attend the Tuesday speech Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give before a joint session of Congress.
As a Jew, support for Israel is in my DNA. Throughout my nine terms in the U.S. House, I...